MANSFIELD — The Springmill Drive-in Theater will be breaking tradition this year.
The traditional outdoor theater is opening a weekend early due to the combination of fair weather and good movies to see.
The theater, located at 1040 Springmill Road, will be showing “Life,” rated R, and “Passengers,” rated P-13, beginning at 8 p.m. A second screen at the drive-in will show “Kong: Skull Island,” a PG-13 film, and “Logan,” rated R, also starting simultaneously. The movies will play both Friday and Saturday.
The weather is expected to cooperate, too. On Friday, the National Weather Service is calling for partly sunny skies with a high of 68 and a low of 53. On Saturday nearly identical conditions are expected with a high of 67 and a low of 52.
“We try to open as early as feasible with the weather and the movie selection,” said Chris Davis, owner and operator at the drive-in. “‘Life’ is supposed to be a great movie and ‘Passengers’ is too. It should be a great couple of films.”
Davis said the favorable weather forecast made opening earlier than the usual first weekend of April a no-brainer.
“It can be hard (to open in late March) especially for drive-ins in Ohio,” Daivs said. “Studios need to know their films will make money and it is a risk to give drive-ins the films to show.
“They are rolling the dice like we are. If we have bad weather one weekend they suffer too.”
Davis said this weekend would be a great time to get out of the house and see a movie.
“It looks like a great time to come out, and get rid of the cabin fever,” he said. “Get your families out of the house or have date night at the Springmill Drive-in.”
